The Power to Influence The power to influence another person to become a reader can be life changing. To know that it may not be as hard to yield this power as one may believe brings us to the story of Melanie Luken and Matt De La Pea. Both Melanie Luken, the author of Literacy: A Lineage, and Matt De La Pea, the author of Sometimes the Tough Teen Is Quietly Writing Stories, agreed that it was someone else’s influence that encouraged them to establish a passion for reading that led them to both become writers. Although Pea grew up with a different background than Luken, he shares that he grew up on tough streets (para 1). Luken shares that her father and her went on library runs together (para 6) but for sure, no mention of tough streets in her story. What …show more content…
The snare is a snare. My old man didn’t play that. And I did a good job fitting myself into the formula.” (De La Pea (2003) para 1) Yet, De La Pea’s father is found asking him about what he’s reading and if he could read the book after he’s done (para 21). Adeimy Lebron, a teacher for over 10 years and someone that works with troubled youth programs in Chicago, when asked how she feels someone can actually influence someone else. She responds, “that the ways she’s found a person can influence another person is by being important or impactful to them and an established rapport of trust.” Lebron continued, “that many kids she works with tell her that it is often very easy to influence someone if they believe what you are telling them to be true.” Though both authors were influenced by someone to read, an interesting difference is that De La Pea was influenced by a professor that went out of her way to give him a book she felt not only reminded her of him but one that she felt was important to to which he would relate. I am sure De La Pea found this professor to be someone that had his best interest in mind and someone that was trustworthy, or else, why would he even consider reading the book she